An Athens woman on Monday claimed that a convicted murderer sent her flowers that police said were purchased with a stolen credit card.

An officer went to the Brooklyn Road woman's home to investigate a report that flowers had been fraudulently purchased from the Petals on Prince shop on March 8, Athens-Clarke County police said.

An order had been phoned into the flower shop by someone using a stolen credit card, according to police.

The recipient of the flower delivery gave differing stories, police said, initially saying that someone left flowers on her back porch and that she just left them there.

When the officer told her what a neighbor had witnessed the woman admitted to receiving a delivery of flowers and taking them into her home.

"She even told me what was on the card, which read, 'From your loving husband,'" but maintained that she did not know who sent the flowers, the officer wrote in a police incident report.

Pressed by the officer, the woman changed her story again, saying that the flowers had been sent by a prison inmate, Rodney McWhorter, according to police.

McWhorter, a 39-year-old former Athens resident, started serving consecutive life prison sentences in 1997 after he was convicted for murdering two people during a drug-related robbery in Elberton.

When the officer told the woman that he could verify who placed the order for the flowers by checking prison phone records, she said, "Oh yeah, (McWhorter) had a guard order it for him," according to the police report.

The officer told the woman that he felt she was being deceptive and could possibly be criminally charged, police said, and he left her with his card with instructions to call if she had further information.